Bhikṣuṇī Dezhen

Bhikṣuṇī Dezhen: The Wealthy Daughter from Anqing

from the Ḍākinīs’ Great Dharma Treasury

In the year 1867, the seventh year of the Tongzhi Emperor’s reign,[1] a daughter was born to Fang Shigong,[2] a wealthy man from Anqing.[3] From her earliest years, she displayed many special qualities that distinguished her from the other children. The most salient of these was her immense faith in the teachings on innate awakening.[4]

When she was nine years old, she took monastic ordination at Zhixi An, or Śāmatha Nunnery,[5] and received the name Dezhen.[6] At the age of twenty-five, she received full bhikṣuṇī ordination. From the moment she ordained, she constantly and tirelessly exerted herself in spiritual practices of body, speech, and mind. One of the earliest practices she adopted was to recite the Diamond-Cutter Sūtra.[7] When she matured and her intelligence blossomed, she studied and deeply understood the Avataṃsaka Sūtra,[8] the Lotus Sūtra,[9] and other scriptures. As she got older, she remained constantly and one-pointedly immersed in deep meditation on the meaning of sacred Dharma.

Although she came from a very wealthy family, she had an extraordinary character marked by undeviating simplicity, contentment, and humility. Her discipline was impeccable, and she guarded her moral choices the way most people protect their delicate eyes. Her altruism and generosity also knew no bounds. Specifically, for a decade, she created countless conditions for others to pursue a life of virtue. She constructed numerous halls for the recitation of the scriptures[10] and introduced many women to the Dharma, serving as their mentor and encouraging them to develop daily practice. In these ways, she did many things to help others.

In the spring of 1933, the twenty-second year of the Republic,[11] Dezhen stayed in retreat for twenty-one days. At one point, she had a vision of the following four words written in space:

Self
Weary
Eternal
Abode[12]

[“The weary self finds its eternal abode.”]

In addition to that, a buddha appeared out of the sky, called her by name, and told her the exact time that she would depart for the pure land.

When she emerged from her retreat, she told her disciples that it was time for her to go to the pure land, and they made all the necessary arrangements. At the exact moment prophesied in her vision, she passed away.

Among her ashes, they found many relics in various colors and shapes. One of them—half an inch in size and radiating five-colored light—was especially impressive and revered.

This story was translated from Chinese to Tibetan by Khenmo Dawa Drolma.

| Translated by Joseph McClellan, 2025.

Bibliography

Tibetan Source

mkhan mo zla ba sgrol ma, trans. "an chun gyi phyug po'i bu mo." (2017). In mkhaʼ ʼgroʼi chos mdzod chen mo (Par gzhi dang poʼi par thengs dang po, Vol. 8, pp. 314–315). Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang. BDRC W3CN2459.

Secondary Texts

Hakeda, Yoshito S., trans. Awakening of Faith—Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa, with commentary by Yoshito S. Hakeda. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1967.

Jessup, James Brooks. The Householder Elite: Buddhist Activism in Shanghai, 1920–1956. PhD diss. UC Berkeley, 2010.

Kiely, Jan. "The Charismatic Monk and the Chanting Masses: Master Yinguang and His Pure Land Revival Movement." In Making Saints in Modern China. Edited by David Ownby, Vincent Goossaert, and Ji Zhe. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Kiely, Jan and J. Brooks Jessup. Recovering Buddhism in Modern China. Columbia University Press, 2016.

Wang, Edward. 2018. "The Tongcheng school and late Qing intellectual change: Introduction." Chinese Studies in History, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 96–98.

Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968.

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